MSC Lirica Cruise Reviews - Reviews

We went on this cruise for the ports, not the overall experience which matched most other reviews. Out of 2000 passengers along with my wife and I a couple of sisters at our dinner table also contracted COVID on the cruise. The third couple did fine. We only saw the sisters at dinner, did not sit close or exchange food, drinks, etc. Funny that we were the only four that got COVID, and we were all vaccinated with boosters. One nice thing, if you are going to be quarantined for the last 48 hours of a cruise they put you in a balcony room and include free room service. 😎

MSC provided a good value for the price. The ship is well-maintained and the staff is friendly. The food is good.

The ship is not that big, especially the food was not good, and the internet was too slow. Anyway, the ports were wonderful.

The MSC Lirica is not a top-end ship - it may be best categorized as lower mid-end. With that in mind, the fares are excellent for the ship's amenities and itinerary. The food is decent, the service is varied but generally friendly, the entertainment (especially if you love to dance and your concert tastes lean towards classical music) excellent. Much of the clientele are European. I would recommended it if this is what your budget allows for. Great cruising experience on a budget.

Liked ports, but wrong days? Liked Jerusalem Excursion, had good guide Needed more time in this port, ? overnight

Good Itinerary, wrong days..... Good Staff, except for Spa Staff Need to change up menu a little more Aurea package should include Gelateria

I decided to get off the ship after being onboard for 55 minutes. It’s absolute chaos. Crew have no idea what is going on. Ask questions and get a different answer each time. Food was diabolically bad. The moment I saw dripping blood off roast pork, I knew I couldn’t continue on this voyage. I packed up my suitcase and got off the ship. I found the ship to be a safety hazard. I hope my negative review helps people better choose their cruise ship and please don’t choose MSC.

European style cruising for a good price. Recommend if you are used to traveling on your own outside of USA.

Overall the food was fair, but not great. The 11th floor aft buffet space is too bunched up and crowded for guests movement around the buffet and between the tables. There is barely enough room for two way walking traffic at the service lines. Moving the rails 1/2 meter out from the service bar would help. Move the larger tables out of the aft window viewing areas and put smaller tables for two guests in their place. There are many windows that could be easily washed from the deck that are very dirty all around the ship. Having picture windows on a ship that are unnecessarily dirty is very poor staff management.

I enjoyed the Itinerary but the activities and the food on the cruise was lacking. I also get the feeling their employees are not happy. Most were not friendly. And they kept promoting their senior staff when it's the servers and cleaners who do all the hard work.

Overall very disappointing. Although we enjoyed the shows and entertainment, between the sewage smell and the terrible experiences throughout the week we are not likely to cruise with MSC again. One thing I would add is that compared to other cruises, there was little information about the excursions. The TV showed lots of pictures but not what excursion would take you to the places you see. There was no meetings in advance about the various excursions or details. This could have been handled much better. The WORST part of the ports is that there was an additional charge to take the shuttle to town! I have never had to pay for this before-and it was expensive at that!

Great cruise, first with MSC (and likely last), but great itinerary.

Food was beautifully presented but was bland. A real shame! The waiters were super attentive! Cabin crew were so friendly and could not do enough to please us passengers. The buffet was always so crowded and people pushed and shoved and and finding a table free was almost impossible. Too many passengers for too little space at Buffet

AIR PORT DO NOT PROCESS TAX REFUND FOR MSC'S. THEY SAID SHOULD DO ON THE SHIP BUT, SERVICE DESK STAFF SAID DO IT AT THE AIR PORT. MAILED THE FORM TO THE MSC. PLS, PROCESS MY TAX REFUND AS SOON AS POSSIBLE. THIS IS A SUCH A HASSLE!!!

Thanks! 

The boat was older and due to be updated. No much to do for younger children under 3. They only spent 4-5 hours in Santorini which i took i hour to commute to the shore and they wanted us on the boat 1 hour.  I would spend more money and also stop by Greece.  The food was good especially when they had special meals. Had a special menu for baby 12 months and under. Which was nice because they did not offer much for children under 3.

The food was horrible and the choices limited. The cabin was old and just felt dirty. My bedspread had a patched hole. The TV was the old tube kind and was missing a button. The shower was so small that the moldy shower curtain kept touching you.

This cruise value is ok, but you get what you pay for

This was our first cruise: husband, my parents and myself. Chose a non-American cruise line for more European experience, which was fine. The only caveat to that choice is if you don't speak fluent Italian it is hard to meet other cruisers. But all staff spoke English and was very accomodating and pleasant. Itineray was great, the only day we did not go into port was at Tunisia - no thanks :-) Food was fine, I have heard all cruise lines have mediocre food unless you spend a lot of money and choose a true luxury line. But for the price of the cruise the food was just fine and we never went hungry. Drink prices were very reasonable - we are heavy drinkers when on vacation and spent significantly less than original estimates and never questioned whether or not we should skip an alcoholic beverage because we thought it was too pricey. The only issue as mentioned above is that all the public rooms closed at 1 AM - now there was a slightly older (average) crowd and sometimes we arrived at ports around 8 AM but my husband and I are in our 30s and if on vacation we plan on staying out some nights after 1 AM. We closed the pubs on more than one occasion so if you are like us you may find the same issue. If you like to gamble this is not the cruise ship for you (unless you just play slots). They only had 1 blackjack table, 2 roulette tables and NO POKER! We became as friendly as one can get with one of the dealers and he said if you like to gamble this was not the choice. We are not heavy gamblers but went into the casino 3-4 nights out of the 7 and didn't stay long. Again, not a big deal to us but thought it was worth noting for others. Would have like a little more time in the ports, the longest we had was 8 hours. But we knew that when we booked. As mentioned, the ports were beautiful overall and there were plenty of ship excursions available. Hubby and I chose to skip excursions but my parents took 3 and said they fully enjoyed them all. They are great because the ship waits for the excursions and leaves much less to worry about in terms of getting back in time for departure. This was our preference not to spend the money on the excursions but if you choose this route DEFINITELY research the ports in depth, including public transportation options and what sites you want to see ahead of time. Most ports had taxis - I fully recommend this even though they typically are the most expensive option because the taxi drivers mostly speak English and know where to go. Finding the correct bus routes and/or subway lines you need may be hard and time consuming if you don't speak the language and you could end up wasting time going the wrong way. Of course several of the ports you could just get off and walk around the city or the cruise line had a shuttle bus (for a fee) to the city center, which was nice because they take you right in and back easily. One thing I must mention is if you embark at Civitavecchia be very careful if taking the train from the airport and transferring at Travastere train station. We were standing all together and a group of men caught our attention by throwing some kind of liquid on us then slashed my purse strap and took off. I was told this is known to be a very dangerous train station and it happens all the time. These are professionals who probably run this routine daily so please just hold on tight to your bags and keep passports and other important things in your pockets or somewhere safe. I read many many reviews before choosing this cruise - some good and some bad, overall very mixed. My entire party fully enjoyed our cruise and would consider this line again if we wanted a European destination. Again, we were a little disappointed in the average age of the crowd but were very happy with the service and product overall. Thank you for reading my review and enjoy your next cruise!

My grandaughter and I really enjoyed our cruise on MSC Lirica. The room was comfortable--adequate storage space for clothes, comfortable bed, nice bathroom (but with shower curtains that were a bother). The friendly staff kept the room clean and changed the towels frequently. The food was excellent and plentiful, and the wait staff attentive. The entertainment in the Broadway Theatre was professionally done and very enjoyable. The choice of excursions was good, and although expensive, the excursions were well-conducted, with competent guides.

Cigarette smoke was present in the sleeping quarters, beautiful large window in outside cabins but really small living space and bathroom, clean corridors and common areas, small pool area, confusing layout, simple and elegant decor